XYZ (TV programming block)
 Logo used since May 27, 2024 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Network | Disney XD |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) |
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| Picture format | 720p HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | |
| Parent | Disney Branded Television |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched | July 11, 2021 |
| Former names | The XYZ (2024) |
| Availability (nighttime programming block of Disney XD) | |
| Streaming media | |
| Affiliated Streaming Service | Disney+ Hulu |
| Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, fuboTV | |
XYZ is an American adult-oriented nighttime programming block broadcast on Disney XD owned by Disney Branded Television, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The block had launched on July 11, 2021.
Debuting in 2021, XYZ serves as the nighttime identity of Disney XD and specializes in airing TV shows and movies from Disney that are more for mature audiences, similar to the veins of Adult Swim and classic MTV, except the mature audience oriented programming would mostly come from 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, ABC, ESPN, Marvel, and formerly owned Miramax and Dimension, and a possibility for The XYZ to produce their own original programming, and sometimes acquiring mature-themed television shows from different countries.
Like Adult Swim, XYZ also broadcasts a Saturday night block focusing on anime and action-animation: Jetix, as a revival of the Toon Disney/ABC Family block. Jetix primarily airs original and acquired anime and action-animation from Marvel or Hulu.
History[edit]
2021: Launch of XYZ[edit]
Originally, Disney was planning to use XYZ as a new name for "ABC Family" in 2003, to be targeted more towards a hip audience. Sadly, it was only a block on ABC Family, and it was short-lived. Disney still had plans to launch XYZ as a channel, but this time for a more mature audience.
On March 7, 2021, Disney Television had announced that they would be launching a new late-night television identity for Disney Channel with the name XYZ targeting an adult audience presumed to launch in July of that year. The network's original programming would aspire to the standards of premium cable channels in regard to mature themes and content, high-quality writing, directing and acting, competing with original content of the likes of other nighttime brands on children's networks, such as Adult Swim. Most of XYZ's programming would be produced or distributed by divisions of Disney Television such as 20th Century Studios, 20th Television Animation and ABC Signature.
On May 6, it was announced that XYZ would launch on the night of July 11, 2021 and would instead the broadcast during the nighttime hours of Disney XD, and would run for 10 hours, from 8:00pm to 6:00am ET.
The block launched with a few of it's original shows premiering in one night from midnight to 5:00am in the early hours of July 12. The Family Guy episode Emmy-Winning Episode was the very first program to air on the block. XYZ also aired custom music videos featuring much of it's original and acquired programming, as well as clips from it's programming branded as XYZ Minutes as interstitials and bumpers.
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On June 10, it was announced that the Jetix block would relaunch in the United States XYZ block on Disney XD after a 12 year's absence since it's rebranding , airing anime and action-animation content for a much more mature audience, competing with other blocks with the same format, such as Adult Swim's Toonami programming block. The block would launch on September 11, and be broadcast every Saturday night from 10pm to 3am ET/PT. The block launched on September 4th.
2022-2024[edit]
Like Nick@Nite and Adult Swim, Nielsen ratings treat XYZ as a network seperate from Disney XD for their purposes.
XYZ programs were made available to stream on Hulu in the newly launched XYZ on Hulu hub on March 5, 2022.
Occasionally, in recent years, XYZ would be reminiscent of ABC and 20th Century Fox, as most of XYZ original programming is co-produced by 20th Television Animation and ABC along with Middleton Street Productions.
In September 2021, it was announced that XYZ blocks and dedicated channels will launch internationally starting in 2023. Similar to Adult Swim's case, in some countries, XYZ does not broadcast on a Disney network due to the fact that it ceased operations or that it's illegal to broadcast adult-oriented content on a children's network. So an XYZ block aired on other channels, for example, it airs on miscellaneous Viceland channels worldwide.
On May 31, 2022, XYZ premiered The Simpsons Movie and the short film Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare in honor of the 88th aniversary of 20th Century Studios, as well as premiering the Season 5 episodes of Futurama that consist of the four direct-to-video films, Bender's Big Score, The Beast With a Billion Backs, Bender's Game and Into the Wild Green Yonder in their original one and a half hour home video formats for the very first time, marking the only time the Season 5 episodes of Futurama have ever aired as movies on linear television.
On September 10, 2022, XYZ had added The Shnookums And Meat Funny Cartoon Show to their lineup, after a 16 year absence from television and previously airing on Toon Disney before Disney XD had launched. Shnookums And Meat contains some elements that modern children's programming would not acquiesce in anymore. Shnookums and Meat currently airs on XYZ with a TV-PG rating, albeit with no descriptors.
In August 2023, all Disney-owned networks went dark on Charter Communications' Spectrum cable television label in a carraige dispute with The Walt Disney Company. The dispute was resolved on September 11, resulting in most networks being restored to the service, while several others were dropped, including XYZ and Disney XD.
On December 4, 2023, XYZ had changed their on-air look and logo and the branding is slightly reminiscent to that of sister networks Disney XD and FXX.
On January 1, 2024, XYZ had lost the 8:00pm hour to avoid commencing at the same time as other nighttime blocks.
On January 6, 2024, the Jetix On XYZ block debuted a new branding, following the rebrand of XYZ, also being known on air as simply Jetix for the first time since the original version of Jetix had rebranded into Disney XD in February 2009.
On February 6, 2024, the Fox-produced Comedy Central series Brickleberry had premiered on the block, marking the first major time a program from the Fox animation library that has openly aired on a channel outside of Disney or Fox ownership, has aired on the block.
2024-present[edit]
On January 12, Disney announced that FXX would cease operations on March 11, 2024, and a full-fledged XYZ channel would instead take over the channel space of FXX, due to the channel already no longer being affiliated with Fox since 2019. However, FXX still remained in operations at the last minute when the day came. Meanwhile, XYZ had been rebranded to The XYZ on-air (the name used for the short-lived ABC Family incarnation of the block and the planned name of the block when it was first announced by Disney in 2020) as an alternate name.
A brand new logo for XYZ had been released on XYZ's X/Twitter account on March 7th, and it would be released on-air on the day the XYZ channel would launch, and numerous promos for the channel had aired overnight on Disney XD. The new logo had represented the block's format of showcasing and acknowledging content derived from Fox, ABC and other sister networks, especially even Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019: the X in the logo represents the crossing searchlights from the 20th Century Fox logo, much like the former logo of FX and the Y represents the stylised final letter of the Disney logo. Newer bumpers and promos came with the block's name change, with some being remixes of clips from certain shows or earlier preeminent station IDs or promos of the Disney Channel, ABC or FOX, similar to the advertisements aired on XYZ first few months on the air from it's inception in July 2021. The block had even regained its former slogan, Get The XYZ, when it had been an ABC Family block.
On May 20, XYZ retired The XYZ branding and reverted back to simply being named XYZ.
For the week of June 3 to June 9, XYZ will be reduced to 9:00pm to 3:00am in favor of marathons of Big City Greens on Disney XD for the upcoming TV movie Big City Greens The Movie: Spacecation.
Acknowledgement of and FOX[edit]
Occasionally, XYZ would be reminiscent of 20th Century Fox and sister network, the American Broadcasting Company, as most of XYZ's original programming is co-produced by said properties along with Middleton Street. In some bumpers and promos, the XYZ logo would resemble the 20th Century Fox logo and older ABC station IDS.
One 2022 ident, starts with a Telop ABC network ident from 1985, but then the screen abruptly glitches violently, and the screen switches to the 16:9 format and then A, B, C start to transform into X, Y, Z, then the XYZ logo appears inside a black circle in a checkerboard background in the custom Paul Rand font.
In another ident, the 20th Century Fox into is parodied with a gold XYZ logo appearing instead of the Fox logo.
Other XYZ idents featured clips of older ABC promos and idents. Some other XYZ idents featured ABC station idents cosuming almost the entirety of the XYZ bumper in dubstep remixes and some dialogue within the idents also remixed and in custom autotune, with the XYZ logo appearing on a striped gray and black background at the end.
XYZ's logo was originally meant to be in the Paul Rand font in the same structure as the ABC logo, similar to the logo of other blocks like NickSplat/The Splat on TeenNick.
The ABC logo has made multiple cameos in some XYZ originals like Blenderstein and Mr. Itch.
Gallery[edit]
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Former XYZ logo (2021-2023). Still used as a secondary logo. -
2021 logo variation featuring Homer Simpson (or Ralph Wiggum?) (in the X), Brian Griffin (in the Y) and Bender (in the Z). -
XYZ alternate logo (2022-2023) -
Short-lived XYZ logo (2023-2024) -
Alternate "The XYZ" logo (March to May 2024)
Programming[edit]
Main article: List of programs broadcast by XYZ
NOTE: XYZ will also air adult oriented shows from ABC, since Disney owns 20th Century Studios, Touchstone Pictures/Television, ABC Studios and Hollywood Pictures.
Trivia[edit]
- Unlike sister channels FXX and Freeform, XYZ airs older episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama in their original 4:3 format.
- Unlike Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior, XYZ's screen bug is on the bottom right side of the screen.
- Paradise PD, Solar Opposites and The Awesomes aired to XYZ because they were co-produced by 20th Century Fox Television and ABC Studios.
- Its name consists of the last three letters of the alphabet as an allusion to sister channel ABC.
- XYZ was originally to be the new name of ABC Family (now Freeform) back in 2003, but those plans were aborted, being simply a programming block during that year.
- Unlike Adult Swim or MTV, XYZ doesn't rely almost exclusively on comedy content (safer for Toonami) and tries to explore other genres like sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, action, drama, superhero, horror and thriller.
- On certain occasions, the XYZ logo would be reminiscent of the 20th Century Fox logo or the ABC logo.
- XYZ was also the only place where Jetix got a more adult-oriented revival.
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- ^ Andreeva, Nellie (February 19, 2021). "Disney XD's Marc Buhaj To Lead Unscripted Series & Specials For Disney Branded Television".